Savannah City Manager Rochelle Small-Toney and Alderman Tony Thomas are demanding a better customer service plan from Comcast and are calling for town hall meetings so citizens can detail their issues with the cable, phone and Internet provider.

Small-Toney also advised Comcast officials at a meeting Wednesday she was authorizing a request for proposals to see whether other franchises, including AT&T and Hargray, would provide services downtown. Comcast provides service only to a few isolated businesses north of Broughton Street, including City Hall, city officials said.

The city can authorize such proposals for citywide service because any cable or Internet provider would enter into a franchise agreement with the city. In exchange for use of city rights-of-way to run lines and install other infrastructure, Savannah officials have the power to monitor customer service issues and demand improvements.

In response to phone calls seeking comment about the meeting, Comcast Area Vice President Mike Daves sent a written response saying the company values its long-standing relationship with the city. He added Comcast looks forward to “ongoing dialogue” and is willing to take specific actions to improve its relationship with the city and its customers.

Small-Toney thinks improvement will come.

“I’m encouraged,” she said. “I think they got the message. When people complain that they can get no response from Comcast, we have an obligation to follow through.”

Documenting problems

In mid-December, city officials asked residents to call the 311 help line with Comcast issues. Nearly 200 people called. Thomas says he received about 100 phone calls, too.

“We think this is a small percentage of people having problems,” said Bret Bell, the city’s director of public information.

Customers complained about having access to fewer channels for the same rates, but also complained about technicians not showing for appointments, errors on billing and frequent problems with broken modems or remote controls.

Small-Toney asked Comcast to provide a “corrective action plan” that will explain how Comcast will improve services. She also asked for a development plan in which Comcast will explain how it will continue to upgrade and improve its equipment to meet growing demands.

The city also gave Comcast officials copies of every complaint received and asked for an explanation of how Comcast will address each one. Thomas suspects the four town hall meetings, which will be held in north, south, east and west sites in the city, will bring more problems to light. The meetings have not been scheduled, but the first should happen within the month.

“I think this is the most aggressive stance the city has taken with an individual business to improve customer service,” Thomas said. “Clearly, things are not working out there right now.”

Ian Elliott, a Gordonston resident, is planning to attend one of the meetings.

Throughout last year, the slightest thunderstorm would knock out his modem, he said. After an outage in the fall, a customer service technician said a lightning strike was to blame and he would be without service three or four days. When he called a few days later, he said, he was told there never was a weather-related outage but he did need a new modem.

“One person would tell you one thing,” he said. “And another person would contradict that.”

When he lost service several more times to bad modems, Elliott canceled Comcast service. His business requires constant access to the Internet, which he couldn’t get, he said.

AT&T proved no better, he said, because the DSL service was so slow business contracts couldn’t download before his connection timed out. He’s now using a mobile hot spot.

Downtown customers don’t have that option because Comcast doesn’t provide service to the majority of businesses or residences.

In a follow-up email, Daves said downtown has always been a challenge because of the high cost to build and lack of demand in the business district. Demand is growing, he stated, so Comcast will determine whether it’s cost-effective to move forward.

“We will never attract Class A businesses downtown unless we can provide broadband,” he said.

Ruel Joyner, president of the Savannah Downtown Business Association, said several downtown businesses have complained to Comcast about not getting business services.

“To add insult to injury, several businesses had received solicitations for such service from Comcast,” Joyner said. “When one of our board members called, Comcast told him it was part of a drop service sent to all addresses in the ZIP code but was not available downtown.”

The downtown association, Joyner said, supports any effort by the city to have Comcast’s franchise agreement reconsidered.

Service issues are not isolated to Savannah. When city officials asked for complaint issues, customers in Port Wentworth, Richmond Hill and Effingham County also called. In January 2011, readers of Consumerist.org, sister site for ConsumerReports.org, named Comcast the Worst Company in America.

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wth..........are we living in the stone ages....Savannah should contact other cable companies like cox communication or another ISP that provides service through cable wires. The DSL service sucks around here, including century link.....

This whole recent flap over comcast is initially becuase one (or more) members of the City Council had an outstanding balance on their bill, got into a pissing contest with some random person on the phone, and this is the fallout. SOMEONE is using their 'Elected Official' status to make their point, turning the city into a sandbox.

Now, thats no real secret - but the part some don't seem to get about the downtown area is to provide service, they are going to have to run more cables underground. You are talking about crews blocking off streets, digging and making a mess of things while they do it. Its not JUST comcast - any competitor coming into the city would have to do the same thing to provide access to that area of downtown. Hargray would have to dig, AT&T wold have to physically put their new lines in as well.

Its not like Hargray can just come in, open an office, and POOF, everyone has a choice now - Do you really think comcast is going to let their competitors use THEIR lines and infrastructure? To spell that out: for Hargray to come do business in Savannah, Hargray would have to invest a bunch of money in new fiber optics and such, have their people climb uility poles, and run new wires to everyone in town. Comcast acquired the existing cable infrastructure when they took over from Cablevision/Jones Communication/every other jackassy outfit thats been in town. That same system can not handle the new services offered.

Comcast is a utility,...as is the phone co, water, and electric. I expect certain levels of service for their " right" to cross my property. If I was sovereign and refused, I would deny all these services to about 80 customers. I am not for MORE govt. but... I would like them to do their jobs. If I had a problem with other utilities I could go to the Public Service Commission. ( a real joke ) I understand infrastructure and EVERY type of transmission line made ( incl. fiber ) Their use of MY easement is the ONLY leverage I believe we have. Any suggestions ?I dont like " big Business" any more than Big Govt.

I surely don't consider Cable TV a utility. I disliked the service I was getting from Comcast years ago and decided I could just do without cable TV. Occasionally, I watch a sports event on my PC that is not being broadcast on the channels I get with my "rabbit ears", but for the most part, I don't miss it at all.

Those that think that Cable TV is a necessity really have not had to identify the difference between wants and needs.

The ONLY reason this is an issue is because Tony "can't balance a checkbook" Thomas couldn't pay his cable bill on time. The man who has filed bankruptcy how many times now (?) is on a personal vendetta. This man is a farce to the "R" behind his name & an embarrassment to his district. Don't like Comcast? Dont use them.

Lets face it ,,,nobody wants to wait for minutes while credit card transactions are processed over phone lines. In my area....DSL is HORRIBLE.....had it for years. Had Direct T.V almost 10 years....left them because of DSL ( comcast ISP is FAR superior...went with them when it FINALLY became available ) Maybe going back, to DTV....( they were good to me) my cable bill is 2x what it should be. These cheezey little digital boxes I just got ( a few months ago ) are HORRIBLE. Wanted to watch the news the other night....( in the B/R ) had every ch BUT the LOCAL ones.

Again my only gripe is that their is no such thing as HD. What they are calling HD is NOW standard definition...nothing is recorded, transmitted or saved in a 480 line format any longer. A 100 $ camera has 12,000,000 pixels for goodness sakes. AGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG That does it...1800direct....I'm making the call.

They are unregulated businesses that generally function as a monopolistic enterprise. Rates, features, and customer service are not monitored and controlled like a utility. Neither is the requirement to provide service. Since satellite depends on physical factors, it is not a universal competitor. "Having your cake and eating it too" comes to mind... non-regulated monopoly. So when you cut a check for HD (the industry standard), pay extraneous fees, and a per channel premium- who you gonna call? Ghost Busters?

requires bandwidth...That's why the " change " to digital TV,...to open up a huge portion of the broadcast band to cell carriers ( who will eventually put Comcast and direct TV out of business in all but the rural areas. & Comcast can't survive there. ) My guess is they are spending all there time/ money toward becoming a streaming media " backbone " (connecting cell sites and Wi-FI sites) This will be an interesting next 10 years or so to see how all this plays out. Its BIG MONEY, BIG Business,... and they are ALL wining and dining your favorite political representatives. Neither the PSC or many politicians understand the technology or ramifications. That is the really scary part.

If left up to them they would do away with " free TV " and take ALL the radio spectrum....then you will HAVE TO STREAM. These are on-going fights in congress and the senate.

to play with. Just like ATT and Comcast and a few other little companies rlmao. Old money bought into these businesses when they first came to Savannah (meaning old money investment) Now if you let competitors come in that will reflect on to their stock investments and they aren't happy. So you know they will fight against any new companies coming in. That is their money your playing with. Trust me this isn't Corporation Control this is Old Money in the area control. If you doubt me look into it you will be shocked.

We started Xfinity 2 months ago and we live in Ardsley Park. For two months there was almost constant interference on the television. The cable modem would lockup and need to be reset every 15 minutes or so.
The techs knew there were problems when they installed it. Their supervisor knew of the situation. They tried to fix it, but could not for two months.
Regardless of costs or other programming issues, it simply does not work on my street!
There is good news. Comcast gave us full refund! But I suspect only because the city is watching them very closely.

The accepted economic Law of Utility is that all utilities require enormous investment and fixed costs to add the first customer, the first hospital bed, and the first pill. But, these fixed costs are marginalized (marginal utility) by the next customer, the next hospital patient, or the next prescription, and the next, and the next, and so on.

A utility must not need be a monopoly, but generally, the more competition a utility has, the more difficult is it to cover its fixed costs and must pass this off to its customers.

This is the argument for a monopoly.

For example, lets say Comcast gave up half its customers to another cable company. Comcast would be entitled to charge the new company for its distribution lines, etc. Let's even say Comcast had ten competitors sharing fixed costs and employee expenses, etc.

Do you really think the cost of your cable bill would be less than it is now? I hope you don't because that would fly in the face of settled macro and micro economic laws. Do you think your service would be better just because another utility provided your service? Perhaps, but I doubt it.

Speaking of monopolies, is there any greater monopoly than government, i.e., the City of Savannah?

Keep in mind Comcast probably pays (I confess I don't know exactly how much) hundreds of thousands, probably much more, to Savannah for the franchise--a cost that's passed on to you.

And you Comcast customers in the unincorporated areas in Chatham, Bryan and Effingham take note: under state law all cable franchise fees are paid to municipalities only, not to county governments no matter how many customers are served in the unincorporated areas. Why should county customers pay a "tax" to Savannah for nothing?

As a way to reduce your cable bills, why don't you tell the City of Savannah to quit milking Comcast if Comcast agreed to return the savings to its customers? I guarantee it would add up to real money in your pocket whether you live in the city or the county.

Finally, about service: I get the impression Comcast has a long way to go here. It's a big and complicated company, but as I believe a lot of these complaints are no less than bogus complaints by people who don't pay their cable bill on time, I also believe there's a lot of room for Comcast to improve with others.

I reject the idea that the threat of competition-or even actual competition- would do much to change things with a utility. Even if you want to call it a monopolistic utility, the mere substitution of one for another would change but little.

I know the idea sounds satisfying to frustrated customers who want to punish perceived and real arrogance and indifference, but, at the end of the day, it has little chance to change anything except to increase costs over time with no guarantees of better service.

As for the comparison of cable versus satellite, I should say here that I live out in the country, far beyond Comcast's cable's line, so I have DirectTV. My general impression is that satellite is the superior technology, but it's expensive and unable to offer anything close to the services (TV, DHL, phone, unlimited long distance, etc.) cable offers at a moderate cost.

To be honest, if Comcast came down mt rural road I would probably through the dish into the ditch.

I think the best way to make service improvements at Comcast is to continue to hold its feet to the fire. No doubt it has failed in many ways. But it can improve and I believe it will.